Fatalities confirmed after passenger plane collides with Army Black Hawk, source says
What we know now
• A massive search operation is underway after a passenger aircraft carrying 64 people collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers on board near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC, according to aviation and defense officials. About 300 first responders are searching the freezing Potomac River, where the aircraft crashed, the DC fire chief said.
• Fatalities have been confirmed and rescuers have not yet pulled any survivors from the water, a law enforcement source said. The source says American Airlines Flight 5342, which was en route from Wichita, Kansas, is in pieces in the water and the helicopter is in the water nearby. The airport will be closed until at least 11 a.m. ET Thursday, airport officials said.
• Several members of the figure skating community were on the passenger jet, according to a statement from US Figure Skating and a report from Russian state media.
• President Donald Trump called the crash “a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented” in a post on social media. It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s post was based on information on which he had been officially briefed.
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/plane-crash-dca-potomac-washington-dc-01-29-25/index.html
